The Illinois Department of Transportation will have an open house Dec. 7 in Winchester to present four possible plans for the bridge that crosses the Illinois River at Florence.

Jeff Myers, program development engineer for IDOT District 6, said there are four options for replacing the bridge, which was built in 1929.

While the bridge still is usable, it is nearing the end of its life expectancy and IDOT would like to have a plan in place once it is able to proceed with a new bridge, Myers said.

“We want to present the options we are moving toward,” Myers said. “These are the early options. One is putting it right back where it is, but traffic is a large concern and the bridge would be closed for a couple of years.”

The Florence bridge is a lift bridge across the Illinois River that has been closed several times because of mechanical problems or barge accidents.

It sees a lot of use from standard automobile traffic, but also sees a large amount of agricultural traffic, Myers said.

“It’s been closed for repairs several times over the years and the detour is somewhat significant,” he said. “It is nearing the end of life expectancy. It’s not in imminent danger, but we want things ready to go.”

Myers said the other options include building a new bridge near the current structure while it remains open for use.

There are four sites that have been looked at as potential locations for the new bridge.

After feedback, IDOT will look at the areas that received the most interest and will discuss the impact to local properties and the environment, Myers said. Information on the impact to properties and the environment will be presented at a later date.

While there isn’t an exact timeline for the project, IDOT hopes to have an environmental report done by summer 2019, Myers said.

Once that is done, the department can begin working on the bridge design.

While there is currently no money available to fund the bridge project, IDOT wants to have the preliminary steps done so things can move more quickly once money becomes available, Myers said.

The open house will be from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Dec. 7 in the Nimrod Funk 4-H Community Building at the Scott County Fairgrounds in Winchester.

Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha.